What Not To Eat: 15 Unhealthiest Foods On The Planet

We all think we know which foods are healthy and which we should avoid, but do we really know why? Besides the high fat content and low nutritional value, the world’s unhealthiest foods have some pretty dark secrets. Once you get the low down on the real reasons they’re a lousy choice for your health, you’ll think twice before reaching for that afternoon snack.

Here’s a list of our top nutritional nightmares.

The Unhealthiest Foods

1. Artificial sweeteners

Zero calories yes, zero detrimental effects on your health? Far from it. Hidden in a huge range of products, there’s an increasing catalogue of data to suggest these chemicals are seriously harmful to health. To date the FDA has received over 10,000 complaints in relation to side effects from aspartame consumption alone.

2. Soda and diet soda

When it comes to sugar laden carbonated drinks versus sweetened diet sodas, there’s little difference in terms of the damage they do to your health. Zero calorie drinks increase your chances of developing metabolic syndrome, and studies show that both can increase your chances of going on to develop type II diabetes.

3. Candy

Candy bars contain large amounts of refined white sugar. Weight gain, tooth decay, and a depressed immune system aren’t your only worries, it’s also highly addictive. People who cut sugar from their diet experience unpleasant withdrawal symptoms such as mood swings, headaches and depression.

4. Fried foods

Everybody knows that deep fat fried foods increase your amount of LDL or “bad cholesterol” which can ultimately lead to heart disease. But did you know that starch rich food cooked at high temperatures (for example French fries) creates carcinogenic compounds like acrylamide, which is also found in plastics and cigarette smoke? Nice.

5. Hydrogenated fats

Don’t be deceivedby “healthy, low fat” spreads. After undergoing a lengthy manufacturing process, what was once a natural product (sunflower, olive oil etc) becomes nothing more than a poison more closely resembling plastic than food.

Hydrogenated fats increase the viscosity of your blood forcing your heart to work harder, making them one of the worse foods for raising blood pressure.

6. Processed meats

The World Cancer Research Fund reviewed more than 7000 studies into the links between diet and cancer and found that processed deli meats like ham, bacon, hot dogs and salami were some of the worst offenders. They’re often manufactured with sodium nitrate, a cancer causing nitrosamine.

7. Processed cheese

Processed cheese is an artificial food with little to no nutritional value. In addition to the high levels of salt and fat, it also contains emulsifiers like trisodium phosphate, (commonly used as a degreasing agent.)

8. Cow’s milk

When you drink a glass of milk, you may be consuming more added extras than you bargained for. Non organic livestock are routinely administered antibiotics and growth hormones, traces of which are regularly found in milk. But that isn’t the worst of it.

Due to the sheer volume of milk each animal is expected to produce, many go on to develop udder infections. This means that pus leaches into the milk. In tests, one liter of Californian milk was shown to contain 298 million pus cells.

9. Commercially baked goods

High in calories and fat, commercially baked pastries and donuts may taste delicious but they won’t do your waistline any favors.

Most baked goods are made with refined flour which not only has the majority of the nutrients removed, but what’s left has been treated with harsh, toxic chemicals that may make it look all nice, white and fluffy, but won’t be any good for your health.

10. Movie theater popcorn

Let’s get real, buy a bucket of popcorn at the movie theater and you’ll eat the whole thing (a handful is never enough!) When you realize that just one small bucket contains three times the amount of saturated fat as a Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza, it no longer looks like such an appealing option.

11. Commercial cereal

Many are manufactured using a process known as extrusion, which involves heating the ingredients to extremely high temperatures. Extrusion destroys any essential amino acids and alters the natural structure of the grain rendering it highly toxic.

12. Junk food

Junk food is bad on all counts. High in salt, saturated fats and empty calories, it tops the list of the world’s unhealthiest foods.

Containing everything from genetically modified ingredients, meat from non organic commercially reared animals, and refined, white flour (and then cooked at high temperatures,) if you’ve been paying close attention, we need say no more.

13. Farmed salmon

We’re not disputing the fact that responsibly caught fish is good for you, but when it comes to farmed produce, it most definitely pays to go organic. Studies found highly toxic contaminants in farmed salmon that if consumed regularly could pose a serious risk to health. These included banned pesticides like toxaphene and dieldrin, both of which are thought to be carcinogenic.

14. Low fat food

When you see “low fat” think “high sugar”. Be sure to read the label carefully. Pre-packed diet foods, proclaiming to be low in fat are often nutritionally far worse than their full fat counterparts. Containing everything from MSG, to fillers like methyl cellulose, they’ll give you the illusion of fullness, only to have you reaching for a second helping half an hour later.

15. Soy products

You’re mistaken if you think that soy is only for health junkies. Up to 60% of all supermarket products contain it in one form or another. As it’s mostly sourced from genetically modified crops, it’s a cheap filler for bulking out food, but it’s so heavily processed it bears no resemblance whatsoever to what we think of as the health food staple so highly revered in the East.

Fermented soy like miso and tamari have been eaten here for centuries, without having a negative impact on health. But the further away from its natural state a food is, the more we run into problems. The fact that there’s still no hard evidence that GM crops are safe, and yet we’re eating this stuff in such huge amounts is reason enough to be concerned.

Takeaway

It’s fair to say that most of us could have second guessed the majority of foods on this “world’s unhealthiest foods” list, but not the reasons why they’re so bad for us. When it comes to our health, nature really does have our best interests at heart. Stick to consuming the bounty that Mother Nature provides, and good health will inevitably follow.

Sarah Murphy trained at the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London, England, where she specialized in Western Herbal Medicine and Ayurveda. She writes widely about natural health, and is passionate about empowering people to take better care of their own well-being.

151 thoughts on “What Not To Eat: 15 Unhealthiest Foods On The Planet”

If you were to read 10 different articles, You would not be able to eat anything. I try to eat healthy and balanced. We’re not here forever so it’s best not to let all these fear factories stop you from living.

Great article reminding us the many failures of “industrial” foods developed mostly for best shelf life!
Megan and other defenders of Industrial food like substances… the track record of nutrition “experts” and scientists are mostly industry lap dogs with a truly pathetic track record. Statistically you would be better following nutrition advice from your grandmother or great grandmother 😉

okay, a lot of this article has it’s “facts” wrong. Just because you do not understand the science behind many of these so called “terrible chemicals,” does not warrant you scaring everyone with misguided ideas of facts.

first, everything is made of chemicals. everything. if i provided a list of every chemical in an organic apple, you wouldn’t recognize their names, or how to pronounce them without some effort either. so offering up selective chemical names for molecules in food, e.g. “hydrogenated fats,” to give your article an air of danger to the uneducated reader does not mean you know what you’re talking about, and it does not mean they are dangerous to consume.

there are, however, many things in this article where you seem like you may have the right sort of idea, but your ignorance in the science leaves you unable to draw accurate conclusions about their structures and effects. not saying all of this article is quackery, i agreed with a lot of it. However, i am very tired of people who “study natural medicine” acting like they are experts in nutrition and food safety, because they don’t know their science thru and thru, and went to study this area of medicine out of an original interest (am i wrong?) in “natural treatments.” which is actually an interest born out of fear. fear of the unknown in the food industry.

my grandfather worked for the USDA (US dept of agriculture), was an air force biological/toxicological researcher and was a toxicologist at the top of his class. he taught me many things about the food industry, and clearly explained the science. as did the professors at UC Davis, the best institute of agriculture in the entire world. perhaps a better education in toxicology and agriculture could improve your writing and the ideas you’re putting into peoples’ heads. there are many phrases in this article you use to make a point to your readers, and i could spend a long while filing them down to their more dull reality, so everyone could breathe a little easier. but since there’s so many, that would take all day. so i’ll be picky.

1. EVERY food you eat is GMO (GM) unless it is a completely wild specimen. GMO (genetically modified organism) =/= GE (genetically engineered). This is because the food species we consume (all plants and all animals except for the completely wild rare exception), do not exist outside of human-selelcted breeding, which makes them GMO. ever seen a wild banana? yeah it’s all seeds, and if you eat it you’d die. so no, GMO<healthy isn't really legit. So basically all the foods you eat (even processed ones which are derived from plants and animals we like) are technically also GMO, like candy and soda. AND YES, ORGANIC foods are also GMO unless wild!!!! also, it is still currently ILLEGAL to sell GE animals on the food consumption market. This IS legal for plants, however, because of their numerous and variant methods of reproduction (also GE plants are nothing like a GE animal). Also, without GMO foods, the world population would be LESS healthy. Nutrition and the ability to reduce hunger would be drastically damaged. Once GE animals are proven safe and effective in the scientific literature, they too, will be beneficial. like… the goats GE'd to produce human lysozyme in their milk to cure chronic childhood diarrhea in african children my professor is working on.

2. hydrogenated fats are simply unsaturated fats that have had extra hydrogen molecules added to the carbon backbones of their fatty acid tails. unsaturated fats have at least one double bond between two carbons in their carbon backbones, which means that the valence electron on that carbon that is normally bonded with a hydrogen in a saturated (saturated, meaning saturated with hydrogens) fat is bonded with an electron on an adjacent carbon, one it's already bonded to, to make a double bond. this produces a bend in the backbone, because of the electrical repulsion that the double bond creates. this gives gives the molecule a "kinked" structure, preventing molecules of unsaturated fats from "stacking" together to be solid at room temp e.g. olive oil and vegetable oils.

but carbons in saturated fats are single bonded and give that valence electron to a hydrogen, so it can be saturated with hydrogens, and its fatty acid tails thus can remain "unkinked," allowing the molecules to stack and be solid at room temperature e.g. butter, animal fats.

HYDROGENATION puts those hydrogens back, and removes the double bonds of the unsaturated fat's tails. so, they stack together and can be solid at room temp. so yay! now your peanut butter doesn't separate. now your unsaturated fat has the same structure of a saturated fat. just the same one that is found in animals. yes, unsaturated fats are better for you than saturated ones. but hydrogenated fats are just as bad for you as your all freaking natural saturated fats. because they both have the same effects on your body. because they have the same structures. they don't increase the viscosity factor of your blood itself. in other words, it doesn't chemically change your blood, or damage the blood cells.

when a high amount of saturated fat is consumed the ability of “good” cholesterol — high-density lipoprotein (HDL) — to do its job is hindered a bit. That job is to protect the inner lining of the arteries from inflammatory agents that promote plaque, which clogs the vessels. plaque is the thing that slows the blood's velocity through vessels. i could go into the chemistry of that too, but i think I've typed enough. so, go easy on the saturated fats, whether from skippy peanut butter or steak. just because its natural does not mean healthy, and synthesized does not mean "alien" or adverse.

i don't think you have to be this extensive, but the way you present your information is not one in which it portrays an accurate image of what is actually happening.

3. the milk thing! oh. my. goodness! after taking several agriculture classes, of which cows and their lactation were a large part, i have been educated about all the nonsense people freak out about concerning milk. since its a long story, I've simply copy and pasted it from the American Institute of Caner Research's website below….but first, let me tell you that is is highly illegal to sell milk from a cow with mastitis, the mammary gland disease I assume you're referencing when you talk about pus. cows are very routinely checked for mastitis, and you can't put a cow with mastitis into a milk machine without her being in pain and uncontrollably rowdy anyway. there would be hardly any milk anyway. and "pus cells?" seriously, are you in 5th grade? "pus cells" are dead leukocytes from the body's immune response (mostly neutrophils) amongst protein rich fluid. milk containing this may be from a cow with mastitis, but i guarantee you this batch was not sold. all milk sold is pasteurized (heated very hot to make safe to drink) and is also extensively tested to ensure the cows were not sick, and that farmers are not tampering with milk. if a cow with with the beginning stages of mastitis was milked, it was caught in the "testing" you referenced and the milk was thrown out. so stop telling people that they are drinking "pus cells." oh, and also, mastitis is not caused from over-millking. it actually results from bacterial infection e.g. from being in a flooded enclosure, or contaminated breakage in the epithelium of the udder, or from some other similar reason.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires four characteristics to define milk as organic, and confusion abounds about each. Milk that is labeled “USDA Organic” must come from cows that have not been treated with bovine growth hormone (BGH) to increase milk production. People who focus on this goal express concern that hormones in milk could raise the risk of hormone-related cancers, or lead to higher levels of an insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) linked with cancer.

However, BGH is a protein hormone, which means that if any does appear in milk, enzymes and acid in our digestive tract destroy it. Dale Bauman, a professor of animal science at Cornell University, emphasizes that if IGF-1 is slightly higher in milk from BGH-treated cows, it represents a tiny fraction of the IGF we all produce each day. Bauman reports that we would have to drink 95 quarts of milk to equal the IGF-1 we make daily in our saliva and other digestive tract secretions.

We need to differentiate between levels of IGF in our blood, which some studies link to a possible increase in cancer risk, and levels of IGF in our food. Several organic-related web sites refer to a study in which vegans (who eat no animal products) showed 13 percent lower IGF than non-vegans. However, a closer look at that study shows that milk consumption was not related to blood levels of IGF. Research shows high blood levels of IGF are linked with overweight, lack of exercise, and diets too high in saturated fat, refined carbohydrates or total calories.

A second characteristic of organic milk is that these cows are not treated with antibiotics. If a cow in an organic herd does need to be treated with antibiotics, she is not returned to the herd for a period of 12 months. Yet in conventional herds, milk from cows that receive antibiotics is not used until tests show it is antibiotic-free. Tanks of milk are routinely tested to ensure no antibiotic content.

A third requirement of organic milk is that cows’ feed is grown without pesticides, whether the feed is grass or grain. Recent USDA reports show that nonorganic milk may contain low levels of certain pesticides, but these are far below established tolerance levels. Using organic feed may support sustainable farming practices, yet research has not found it affects the nutritional value of the cows’ milk.

The final requirement for organic milk is that cows must have “access to pasture.” Many consumers assume this means cows graze in fields most of the year. However, the current standard does not require a specific length of time in pasture. A cow can graze in pasture only a limited time and still produce milk that is certified organic.

On the question of grain- versus grass-fed cows, some suggest that pasture-fed cows may produce milk that contains more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), a special type of fat that may protect against cancer and other health problems. But Michael Pariza, professor of food microbiology and toxicology at the University of Wisconsin, and a leading expert on CLA in dairy products, says grass feeding by itself does not assure increased CLA. He and Bauman both note that cows fed mixed grains with soybeans or other additions can produce milk that has higher CLA levels than milk from grass-fed cows. This may lead you to spend less on milk and more on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and other healthful foods.

Regarding GMO / GE foods, one reason to avoid is that they contain increased and increasing pesticide levels. Among GMO crops approved for use in the US, the majority are pesticide-resistant or -producing. See:

If we extend the concept of health beyond us individuals to include the health of the supporting ecosystem, GE crops present multiple possible threats: loss of biodiversity through hybridization, increased chemical impact, etc.

Well done, and thanks for the effort to explain all of this. Although most of the article was right on, it does contain the common thread of food fiction that so many other sites have. Unfortunately, we live in a world where many treat opinion as fact and fact as opinion. You present facts… well, that’s just your opinion. *sigh*
Hopefully the time you took will help some people to think more critically, investigate further and weigh evidence carefully before jumping on the “scare wagon.”
I find it sad that when a former scare wagon rolled through town a decade or so ago, and coconut oil was vilified and banned from movie theater popcorn. And now, movie theater popcorn is being vilified once again for containing the wrong kind of oil while coconut oil is quickly becoming the miracle cure-all for everything from eczema to Alzheimer’s disease. It is rather hard to get one’s facts straight when “facts” are nothing but current fashionable opinion.

Okay where to begin… First I agree that this article is pop-science leaning, but IS trying to promote better eating.
The statement that all food is GMO is complete BS and you know it. There is a big difference between selective breeding and genetically modified. Unless you think that corn and bacterium naturally breed with each other. Shame on you. There are real benefits to GMO food (higher yields per acres mostly) but like the article tried to state we don’t know the long term effects (if any) of any of these foods. The article tried to slip in the ridiculous claim that these food have not been proven to be healthy, whereas you could only demonstrate that they do not have negative side effect associated with them. As for the wild bananas selective breeding has caused the situation decribed. It is not selective breeding that has made bananas edible, it is that only the ones that are not have not been cultivated. Finally many EU countries have banned GMO foods until they can be studied further. Right now Americans are being used as guinea pigs for Monsanto and their ilk (and have been for longer than we would like to know). Add to this the ability to use higher levels of pesticides and weed killers, since the plant is now tolerant of products like Round-Up and you are likely exposing yourself to higher levels of pesticides. I would be in favor of labeling of GMO foods since there IS a difference no matterhow you want to try to justify it.
While I agree milk is screened and the “pus” tactic is lame, a LOT of milk sold is not what the consumer is expecting. I would not be surprised if pus was found in a container sold in a store as milk is also one of the mostly commonly “faked” foods on the market and items that are simply not milk get sold as milk daily. See melamine in milk for the worst cases (typically in China).
As a scientist I think you would understand that yes all food is toxic to some extent but the level of toxicity needs to be minimized AND what was thought to be safe at one point is later found to cause cancer. It is the best interest of everyone to minimize their exposure to toxins since our livers and kidneys are already working very hard and the increase in food alleries and sensitivities is real and cause by something.

Very good reply. And there are more issues with this article such as this:
“They’re often manufactured with sodium nitrate, a cancer causing nitrosamine.”
Such an incredibly inaccurate statement. A nitrate (sodium nitrate or NaNO3) is not a nitrosamine, which has the structure of R1N(-R2)-N=O (Where R1 and R2 are carbon chains.

Now in foods, nitrosamines can be formed by the interaction of sodium nitrite (NaNO2 – notice it is different than sodium nitrate) with secondary amines, which often occur in the form of proteins.

I could go on, but I think the point is made. This woman doesn’t understand science very well.

Megan proves that words can be used to make anything at all sound good and scientific,leaves out any real sense or truth. All foods are GMO,sounds so bright,except for the fact that plants are divinely created to conform with care and attention to fit the needs and expectations of humans. This does not include scientist inserting genes,viruses,antibiotics and resistance to toxic pesticides that are poured on in the quantity of millions of tons.a year in the US. People are so stupid.

You go Megan. I get pretty tired of pseudo-science scare tactics. If you have valid points, you should be able to back them up with (actual) data. Using terms like “poison” and “toxic” as a counter to “natural” and “organic” just doesn’t make sense. Heck, lead (Pb) is “all natural” but I don’t want it in my food. I hope people took time to read your thoughtful commentary.

Enjoyed your very informative reply. What I’ve said for a long time take things in moderation. It is impossible to eliminate all the “bad” things in a persons diet. But a person should be well informed on what they consume and get both sides bad and good so they can make proper decisions. Over indulgence and abstention can both be unhealthy.

How can a food that has been modified genetically so that the seeds are infertile and thus cannot be used by farmers for planting the next seasons crops be considered ‘natural’. I was taught in science at school (some 40yrs ago now) that monounsaturated fats as well as aspartame and many many of the additives now considered normal were bad for our health and should be avoided at all costs. Seems my science teacher was correct, and if this was common knowledge 42yrs ago why has it been allowed to go on for so long. Also, there is a vast difference between a farmer/grower selectively breeding for specific traits in a plant, eg: a blue flower or frilly petals or purple peas, and the genetic modifications being carried out by the large US companies today. There is a reason that these plants/seeds can’t be used in Europe, in spite of monsanto trying to force there use through the courts, and maybe the US should take note.

I applaud this article. I have Hashimodo’s disease, which is to say my body has created antibodies in an attempt to kill my thyroid. If left untreated (which would have happened w/o Obamacare!), after it kills the thyroid, it then goes on to kill another organ, seemingly random: a liver, lungs; maybe the pancreas. I have been ordered to avoid the consumption of wheat, cow-dairy, or any food with processed sugar in it, ever again, if I want to save my own life. Wheat is apparently one of the worst things you can eat, even if the food in question is “healthy” whole-grain. Whole-grain is anything but healthy.

Avoid the many auto-immune diseases that will crop up in your future by cutting out wheat/dairy/sugar now!

Over 100 countries national food regulatory boards have found aspartame to be of no real health concern. Plenty of scientific studies back this information up. The negative publicity aspartame receives is cultural, not scientific.

You are all ridiculous.
The earth will be a ball of fiery red death before I can finish reading this redundance.

What is the point of working hard and being responsible in all your life decisions if you can’t make bad decisions and eat what you want and not allow yourself to turn into one of those cross fit excercise freaks that worries all the time about what’s “natural”.

You could die tomorrow, regardless.
Fate is fate.
Eat some cheese fries.

First off, milk is very good for you (not to mention ALL NATURAL for all you organic freaks) and people have been drinking it for thousands of years. Secondly, while I wouldn’t exactly call cereal a health food, it doesn’t warrant inclusion on this list . Cereal is low in calories, fat, salt and cholesterol and high in vitamins. Im so sick of reading articles like this. The best nutritional advice is eat a WELL ROUNDED diet. Eat the bad stuff in moderation and eat lots of vegetables.

Yes, nitrites are in MOST processed meats, as a preservative. Go Into a grocery and pick up any bacon, ham, hot dogs, lunchmeat etc. that isn’t organic and it will show sodium nitrites in the ingredients. she wasn’t saying that you can’t eat candy or cookies or drink milk, she is saying that you should stop eating processed foods and eat WHOLE foods. If you are going to drink soda, take the time to drink soda with REAL SUGAR. Instead of refined sugar use raw sugar. Don’t use margarine, use butter. Use unbleached flour, eat real cheese not processed cheese food, drink milk but drink ORGANIC milk….EAT REAL FOOD like we ate when we were growing up, when GASP mothers actually cooked real meals and the family sat down and ate together. As a registered nurse, wife, mother and individual with TWO autoimmune diseases, I can assure you that the bulk of what is presented in this article is accurate. based on my own experience, education and abilities I have reformed the foods that my family eats, and we are happier and healthier because of it. I eat what I want when I want, including a glass of organic milk and 5 organic choc chip cookies just ten minutes ago at 11pm. When I want ice cream I eat all natural ice cream. I eat chocolate, but it’s organic choc. I eat what I want when I want, I just make sure the food we eat is Natural. At 46, 5’2 and a size 6 I am not obese (my mother was), my children are not obese and neither is my husband. We do not exercise daily as we should, and our kids are nerds not star athletes. if we ate the processed foods that are the mainstay of society I know that we would not be able to maintain our current sizes or health. In 2006 I had a bone scan, due to my medical conditions. It was discovered that I had lost 13% of my bone density at 37. I cut hydrogenated foods and high fructose cornsyrup from our diet, while adding organic milk and meats. I did not increase my exercise regime and I took no new medications to counteract my bone loss. In 2008 I had a second bone scan. I had regained 11% of my bone density. In 2010, I had regained another 2%. At 46, I am currently above normal for my age. I have diabetic pts who drink nothing but sugar free sodas. After drinking these products, there blood sugar readings are consistently higher than when they drink water or natural juices such as apple juice. Mother nature has placed everything that we need to survive within our reach. As pious humans we have seen fit to IMPROVE upon Mother Nature by refining and processing her already perfected creations. Since the introduction if fast foods, processed foods, genetically modified foods there have been marked increases in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, coronary artery disease, Auto immune diseases….I can keep going. The numbers don’t lie. So you guys eat mcdonalds. I will continue to cook whole foods, creating whole meals for my family while drinking organic sweettea, milk and occasionally sodas, avoiding HFCS, GMF’s, hydrogenated fats and nitrites….in the end, we will see who is healthiest. it may cost a bit more to eat whole foods, but I consider it an investment in mine, and my children’s futures! and it’s all as simple as reading the labels. The more we refuse to eat the bad foods, the more the food industry will listen and change their way of doing biz. You will notice that it has already started with many manufacturers who have stopped using HFCS as a preservative. Pick up a bottle of hunts or Heinz ketchup, read the words “no high fructose corn syrup” on the label, and you will see what I mean

It is a shame that movie theaters still make the worst possible popcorn to make money. Air popped popcorn with real butter is awesome, but a lot more expensive than the gross sludge that they can only call “topping”. Granted no one needs a feedbag full of carbs to watch a movie, but popcorn is truly a whole food and is a much better snack than snacks made from refined carbs and sugar like pretzels and candy.
The problem is the more primitive parts of brain would much rather spend x for a giant bag of popcorn with sudge than 1.5x for a smaller bag with butter.

This article is full of disinformation that gets parroted across the internet on a daily basis.

But even if it weren’t. Life involves RISK. You can live your life with the goal of minimizing that risk, or, on the opposite extreme, you can live your life to the fullest, risks be damned.

However, you CAN live your life somewhere in the middle. You can avoid certain risks, like for instance, by wearing seat belts or not smoking, while accepting that there are others that are nearly impossible to avoid (like most of these food “risks”). While there MAY be harm in these items, the risks are in most cases infinitesimal to the average person.

I chuckled when I read the “statistic” concerning that artificial sweeteners that ten THOUSAND complaints had come in regarding their possible harmful affects. Do you realize how SMALL that amount of complaints is compared to the MILLIONS of people who consume artificial sweeteners every day? Are some people sensitive to these substances? Yes. Should they be banned because for the sake of those few people? No. That’s crazy. If you suspect you are sensitive – stop consuming them! We cannot expect the government to minimize every single risk that exists in life. Take responsibility for yourself and remember that life IS risk. It’s OK to embrace some risks for the sake of your happiness and sanity.

A long term large nurse’s healthy study showed people who eat fruits and veggies And low fat dairy products have fewer health problems. So low fat dairy is not unhealthy. Not getting enough calcium is a disaster. Here’s the thing. Living will kill you eventually. Breathing will kill you eventually. So sense and moderation please.

Wow… There are some true things on here but for the love of god you are supposedly in medicine and you don’t even understand how hormones work?
Hormones are a PROTEIN. And all living things have them. If you drink something containing hormones you DIGEST IT LIKE A PROTEIN BECAUSE THAT’S HOW THE BODY WORKS. The only way that teeny bit (the percentage is crazy small if it gets used) of rBST is going to effect you is of you decide to inject the milk with a syringe into your veins. And if you’re injecting milk into your blood…. I think you have much bigger problems to worry about.
And so much for research… There is a 0% tolerance policy on antibiotics in milk. If a cow gets antibiotics for any reason which, surprise, is usually because she got sick and then don’t want her to suffer and die, her milk is DUMPED until there is no antibiotic residue in the milk.
Also, the term “Processed” refers to any product which has been altered of had anything added to it. That includes those lovely organic chicken cutlets, as they has been cut up and dunked in water to prevent dehydration. You are talking about reconstituted meat products.
The information in this article flies in the face of real science and nutrition and while contains very few true statements if is mostly reinforcing force fee lies that have been made up by people who have no real training or experience in the field.

I advise people to stop reading bunk like this and contact a university if you’re really interested in ACTUAL food and animal science. Their poultry department or agriculture department will give you actual information.

But then again as someone with a de free in something close to medicine you should already know how proteins work. Somebody has apparently forgotten her high school biology…..

Sorry for sounding so rude… But articles like these only hurt the public and hinder their acquisition of actual knowledge and facts.

No offence to any of you commenters here but I thought this was a great article. It was short sweet and to the point. I look at this article as more of a reinforcer or what I already believe. I need to see things like this instead of the constant bombardment of negative food advertisement.

I have no idea why George Takei would link me to such a terrible article.

This article is bad, and the author should feel bad about it.

“…no hard evidence that GM crops are safe..”

That’s pretty rich, considering the other side of that coin is there’s no hard evidence that GM crops are unsafe. And without those “horrible” GM crops, the world would be starving and famine would be everywhere. If you think the entire worlds population can be fed with “all natural” or “unmodified organic” food, you’re totally delusional.

You enjoy your overpriced feel good morally superior organic food, and I’ll enjoy my genetics modified food that has been engineered to be resistant to disease and drought and has nearly singlehandedly enabled us to support the world’s population.

The debate aboutr GMO food will continue for a while. Let’s agree that we still need to know more.
But as far as famine is concerned GMO foods are to blame more than you would expect…. why look at compnaies like Monsanto, who have destroyed the economic principles that have guided farming for centuries. It used to be what you grew was yours… not any more if you grow from Monsanto’s seeds they own the seed rights. Long story short you are forced to buy seeds from them in perpetuity. Food has gotten less expensive but the profits don’t go to the farmers AND when GMO food floods a local market local farmers can’t compete. You now have famine due to a lack of money even though there is enough food.
You want to fight famine make portion sizes smaller and there will be a lot more food to go around.

One of these days, they will find out salad is also unhealthy. But as it stands, it is the only thing these people think we should eat, pity it tastes like total shite, and would destroy anyones reason for living.

I mean who would want a long healthy life if all you could eat was rabbit food?

im in decent shape. run regularly. go to the doc to check blood levels etc. anything spoken in absolutes (this article) is stupid. i dont keep pop in the house but if i want one (probably once or twice a week) im f’ing buying it. fried stuff tastes good so im eating it. no milk??? ill take my chances. nothing done in moderation will kill u any faster than all the random crap that can happen on the day to day

Though most of this stuff is correct worldwide ( diet and low-fat everything ), some of the foods listed here ( like diary ) are not so dangerous outside USA. EU has much higher standards wen it comes to food products and farming so allowed amount of antibiotics is much lower and often there is none of that in the milk. Also in a lot of third world countries US style milk production is simply too expensive so they don’t have antibiotics in their milk aether.
I’m not sure, but I think that standards for flour production are also much higher in EU, and I know for sure that most of the US produced cereals are banned in EU exactly because of the reasons that you’ve stated here. Only US company selling cereals in EU is Kellogs but their cereals for EU market are much different from those in US.

Therefore, or this list should be called “15 Unhealthiest Foods in USA” or it should be revised.

The western diet is causing “metabolic syndrome”, which includes obesity, diabetes, dementia, and heart disease. There is an epidemic of these problems, and we know it is caused by the food, and we see it in other countries as they adopt the high-processed food diet.

That being said, I believe this article demonstrates the ideological blind spots of the author, and it thus quite poor. If you go by the science, you’ll find measured language and lots of uncertainty, but the message is make home-cooked meals.

I was thinking that as well. “Highly toxic” seems like a stretch. Something that is legitimately highly toxic wouldn’t allow someone to be eating it from childhood into their 30s, like me, and still be alive, much less have no health problems that would point to being poisoned for 30 decades by highly toxic substances.

Man, you’re not kidding. I’ve eaten boxed cereal all my life…the sugary stuff, the healthy stuff, the organic stuff…all of it. I feel lucky to be alive today!! I’m all for trying to eat healthy, but guess what, the mortality rate for all of us is 100%. Sorry.

What a heated debate! Not surprising, though, as food is so vitally important for survival, plays a role in comfort, social gatherings, economics, city structure, and lifestyle. With media, We’re overwhelmed with opinions about what is healthy and what isn’t. We all have our opinions, and that’s fine, unless we’re not backed by evidence and we try to influence others when we are misinformed. The internet can be a tool, or you can be a tool with the internet. It’s your choice.
The bottom line to this article is that it would be healthier to eat what can be identified as the food product in its natural state. As a general rule, the more processing, the less healthy it is likely to be. So, if it looks like a carrot, smells like a carrot, and tastes like a carrot, it’s probably okay to eat, unless you can’t trust your judgment and don’t know what a carrot really looks, smells, and tastes like…which is possible, given that, at least, in industrialized countries many of us are so far removed from the origins of our food. Eating less processed foods is affordable and available, or possible to make available to everyone. We just like to make excuses not to change because it’s easier than changing. It will take a huge effort to make a sizable change in the way we eat, but it’s well worth it! I’m a nurse, and I’m quite well informed of the harmful effects of bad diets. I’m also an avid reader of nutrition science text. It’s a far cry from expert status, but I do the research, as it’s my duty to educate others with accurate information on the subject of nutrition. So, I do hope that this post will lay the groundwork for at least one person to improve his or her diet, even if only modestly. Just remember that general rule I’ve stated above and start with that.

Heres the problem. You are a nurse. As bad as doctors when it comes to the debate on what to eat. I am a professional chef and nutritionist with many years experience. and im my experience, the medical field has got it all wrong.

Yes, this article is utter shit. No, it is not just as affordable and available to everyone to eat ‘pure’ food vs processed foods. Do you know what a single mother with 4 kids has for a food budget? When my mother was raising me and my 3 sisters, it was 100$ for the month. Budgets have gotten even tighter nowadays. With that in mind, do you know what it costs to provide a salad, a meat and a side for 5 people? Definately over the approx. 70 cents per head per night at the appropriate portion sizes. Now do you know what it costs to provide for the same family of 5 a couple boxes of mac and cheese, or some wierd concoction of canned meats and processed pastas? about 20-30 cents a head.

It is part of my job to cost out food that I prepare in my place of work, so its only logical that I would do the same at home. When doctors and nurses stop trying to preach about how to eat right and leave it to the nutritionists and culinary professionals, maybe some headway will be made.

I love your response. It is so true, what you point out. I thank my parents for teaching me the how and why of making food from scratch. I was raised on a farm and probably healthier for it. I didn’t like the farm growing up and would never back to one, but I can survive because of knowing what a carrot looks like unprocessed.

Yes cows develop infectons in the udder, it’s called mastitis. When a farmer discoveres any trace of this he immediately separates the milk from the rest. This means the bad milk with the infection is not given to any consumers. Yes, farmers give cows antibiotics but again when they do they cant put the cows milk with the rest for a certain period of time and also can not bring the cow to market for a certain number of days.

That photo doesn’t serve to support your point, G, because it comes with no description or identification as to where it is, or what sort of operation it is. It’s impossible to determine what kind of livestock are even in that picture. However, as someone who grew up on a cattle farm, I can tell you that this doesn’t even begin to resemble a dairy farm. Milking takes place in a much more controlled environment than the one pictured, where the farmer would certainly notice if a cow developed mastitis.

um, yeah, you may have grown up on a cattle farm, but you have no idea what it’s like on an industrial milking operation. there are no farmers in the main operation, only minimum wage, likely non-English speaking, workers who aren’t trained to know what to look for in regards to illness or problem cattle.

yes, the article is a little abstract in what we *CAN* eat, but all you idiots saying that there’s nothing left to eat, or only salads, have no clue what real food actually is. you don’t have to pay outrageously high pricing for real food. but it does take some time to prepare meals with real food, and most people would rather play video games, watch stupid reality TV, or continue procreating w/o end (you know, 7.3 Billion effing “miracles” is MORE than enough already).

yes, this was written by someone in the U.S. and should be more clear that it references U.S. conditions and “laws.” but most people with more than an ounce of sense can discern this from the writing.

You’re very wrong. There are extensive procedures in place to detect mastitis in a milk cow. 1. The CMT (California Mastitis Test). This is done on a milk cow suspected of having mastitis. It is pretty obvious when a cow has mastitis, and every milk cow at some point will develop mastitis.
2. While a machine is used to milk cows, milkers have to be manually placed on the cows udders. Farmers, therefore, are handling these cows and looking at their udders.
3. All the milk collected in the milk silo is tested prior to leaving the farm. If it has above a certain amount of WBCs, all of it is discarded. The article is misleading in the amount of pus is in milk. That is actually the amount of WBCs that is allowed to be in milk.
4. Mastitis is a bacterial infection. You can’t treat a bacterial infection without antibiotics. Would you rather have pus milk from an unhealthy cow?

Sarah is most likely clueless. Yes there are foods that are not good for you and should be avoided. But there are several obvious errors in her “article” – enough to indicate she is just parroting misinformation posted by other clueless people.

E.g. Processed meats are “… often manufactured with sodium nitrate, a cancer causing nitrosamine.” Wrong. Sodium NITRITE is added to some processed meats and neither sodium nitrate nor sodium nitrite is a nirtosamine. Not going to give a chemistry lesson here. This is just more mindless web drivel.

Going on the Nitrate/Nitrite Discussion. At one point it was thought to be bad for people, but after the study was properly peer reviewed, it was discredited as being bad for you, but many people still thought it was a fairly taboo item as it was in so many food that are considered unhealthy for you.

Truth is though, many vegetables you consume have higher nitrite concentration in them than the processed meats that they are typically associated with them. less than 10% of the nitrite we ingest actually comes from processed meats.

There is absolutely nothing on this earth that is not made up of chemicals.
Even your brain, your heart and your blood is made up of chemicals.
Your very healthy foods are also 100% made of chemicals.
Perhaps you meant to say “that does not have any Harmful Chemicals”?

I hope most of you guys are kidding regarding no alternatives to this list. All she is trying to recommend is that in order to eat healthy, we should revert back to real food, aka “inconvenient foods.” Any food you deem convenient, (i.e., a quick sandwich you make for lunch with fake, pillow-soft bread (stripped of its nutrients most likely and then readded–which doesn’t work the same guys), processed deli meats filled with nitrates, salt, sugars (tell me you know what part of the animal those meats are from, and how its manufactured into an ovular block), and American cheese (why is it so gooey, so yellow, and so artificial tasting??), omitting any sort of vegetables other than maybe iceberg lettuce) is probably not good for you. Try a sandwich with organic bread (try 6 ingredients or less on labels, and it shouldn’t be pillow soft!), and any combination of hummus, avocado slices, kale/spinach/swiss chard, a cheese slice from the local cheese area (I love Havarti), a fried egg (I buy my eggs locally), tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, sprouts, hemp seeds, flax seeds, sauteed eggplant, tempeh, stone-ground mustard, hot sauce, brussel sprouts, seasonings…there are so many options!

When you start eating real foods, the fake foods are only appealing because of their convenience. I still eat junk every once in awhile, but that’s why you need to eat healthy to make up for it! Ask yourself, how is this made?, do I know what these ingredients are?, and don’t avoid fats, sugars, soy, salt, etc completely. Try natural fats (cooking with olive oil), natural sugars (fruits and sauteed vegetables), fermented soy (tofu, tempeh, brewed low sodium soy sauce, miso), don’t add salt to anything or use salt-free seasoning blends, use local honey or agave nectar instead of sugar. And it really is a good idea to liken yourself to a milk alternative such as almond milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, quinoa milk (but not soy or rice milk!). So many options when you start asking around.

There are all natural and organic deli meats available- there are also natural and organic cheese- and Boars Head is just one brand I know of that uses a vegtable seed to color the cheese-including the American, and not artificial color. There are healthier alternatives available for what people are used to.

Heh, actually, iceberg lettuce is one of the worst vegetables you can eat. It absorbs a great deal of water from its environment, which is why it’s so juicy. But because of how many pesticides are used in commercial farming, that same trait also means that the lettuce takes in a vast amount of that same pesticide, which no amount of washing will remove. So keep that into consideration for your future purchases! Romaine is a heartier and less absorbent leaf, and as usual, it’s always better to buy from farmers that use less pesticide than others. Hope this helps!

So pretty much ANYTHING that ANYONE likes we shouldn’t eat. well thats great isn’t it?

The only way people are going to stop eating everything you have listed is if you make the same product but the correct way… all our technology and skills but making a healthy chocolate bar taste good is impossible it seems?! yet you can make quorn taste like a bloody cumberland sausage.

i eat ridiculously healthy for someone my age (7 a day) but i do this so i can eat the sh*t I Love! like chocolate bars, like crisp! iv tried all the substitutes and they DO NOT CUT IT! surly it is not that hard.

maybe make a list of all the substitute junk food you CAN EAT instead of what everyone CAN NOT. Its even starting to wind me up reading all these lists of what you can’t.

Yeah. Aspartame. Nobody would recommend ingesting large amounts of chemicals – let alone diet soda – but so much research has been put into this one because of a bunch of loons claiming it causes everything from cancer to birth defects and there’s just nothing to support this in the amounts a ‘normal’ person would ingest. Yes independent research bodies not associated with covering up conspiracies and blah blah blah big pharma whatever.

I agree with all, but the milk. Cow’s milk is tested for any presence of antibiotics per federal law. If discovered, the entire load of milk is destroyed and reported to the government. It is tested before receipt at all dairy plants!

I agree with all, but the milk. Cow’s milk is tested for any presence of antibiotics per federal law. If discovered, the entire load of milk is destroyed and reported to the government. It is tested before receipt at all dairy plants!

I’ve noticed some reffering to others as “city people”. it was almost racist. the fact that one lives in one place or another is irrelevent. i saw nothing in the article that was untrue. still..the fact remains that most of us simply cannot afford the prices of organic foods. I’d love to be able to afford to eat organically grown fruits, vegetables, rice, beans and yes organically fed meats(hey.i’m not some vegan..hippy..whatever..just a normal guy). the fact is most foods are genetically altered. most meats contain antibiotics..growth hormones etc, and all sorts of food(stuff) out there isn’t good for anything but filling one’s stomache..making people addicted and fat. do i fault big farms and ranches for doing what they have to do to compete ? “NO” i do not. I just wish they didn’t have to. it’d be nice to not think about all the dangerous things i put in my body and the bodies of my children every day. but someone above made a point that many people didn’t bring up..”organic food is outrageously priced”…and who can afford almond milk? i’ve had it..its “awesome”…but i simply can’t afford to keep it stocked in the refrigerator. its easy say say “eat better food that is better for you. it isn’t as easy to tell people how to afford to “buy it”…otherwise a great many of us would.

OMG, someone else who actually gets it, I would love to eat better, however there is no way to afford it, thats number 1, number 2, my teeth are so bad and since I have no dental insurance and someone decided that we needed separate insurance for our teeth because apparently they are not part of our body and so regular insurance isnt good enough, I would never be able to chew, carrots, apples, etc…so how are we suppose to stay healthy when we cant afford these foods or dental attention.

It is not irrelevant to talk about where people live in relation to the food available. Bigger cities and coastal cities do have more, better, and a variety of food. The Southwestern (especially rural areas) part of the US does not always have good, affordable food for people.

Soy milk has estrogen in it. Which can be harmless in adults but could change the amount of estrogen in our bodies. Awful awful awful for children. Almond milk and coconut milk are MUCH better for you then soy milk or cow milk ( hormones, added sugar ect.). And much taistier. 🙂 We, city people, are only interested in our health. Sorry. I’m so glad that you can eat whatever you like. I’m a little hesitant to just put anything in my body without knowing what it is and what it does to me. You are braver than I. I’m not a vegan or vegetarian. I’m just someone looking out for my personal health and growth. I wish good luck and good health and hope that you do your own research. It’s what we city folk do. 🙂

The issue of concern here seems to be the constant, forced pregnancy of cows to keep them lactating, and how it effects estrogen levels in the milk-producing cow, versus a human mother who is pregnant and lactating infrequently, where estrogen levels remain at a more normative level because the human mother is on a “normal” schedule, and her body has time to reset itself after the pregnancy.

Speaking of doing your own research, soymilk does not have estrogen in it. Soy is estrogenic, meaning that it causes the body to create estrogen. Soy plants, however, are not out there manufacturing human hormones. Good luck, good health, and, ummm, actually do research what you’re saying.

Your facts about cow’s milk are wrong. Dairy cows are not given growth hormones. They are sometimes given a synthetic form of a hormone that their bodies already naturally produce. This hormone helps with milk production. If they are given antibiotics, the milk can not be used for a certain number of days, depending on the medication used. There are strict regulations on milk production to ensure that it’s safe for human consumption. Whole cow’s milk is very safe and nutritious. Dairy farmers also take very good care of their cows. Those cows are a source of income and livelihood and are very valuable to the farmer. The health of the cow is a priority and not something taken lightly or ignored. http://Www.dairyfarmingtoday.org is a great resource for facts about the milk we drink.

Cows milk may be “safe” from a chemical standpoint, but it is designed for one purpose: to feed calves; not humans. We are a different species of animal. We should be eating down on the food chain (i.e. plants, vegetables, fruits, nuts) not cannibalizing fellow animals.

cannibalism is the act of one individual of a species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food.

Humans are designed to be omnivores. Just like many animals, which includes humans, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, pigs, badgers, bears, coatis, hedgehogs, opossums, skunks, sloths, squirrels, raccoons, chipmunks,mice, and so on..

What is healthy?! You named so much stuff. Yeah, i understand that a lot of the food in a super market is unhealthy but what else do we have to eat? Not all “health food” stores are real health food stores so either spend ALOT of extra money at a health store that you can’t afford or to a farmers market which may be no where close by many have no choice. That’s just the way the world works

malcolm, what else is there to eat?
fruits and vegetables, organic when possilble
cook your own meats without using sauces full of chemicals, organic when possible
wild seafood
nuts and seeds

many companies are out now offering alternatives to highly processed crap food, like soda with raw sugar cane instead of highly processed corn syrup, or steak marinades with only a few unprocessed ingredients, they even have a peppermint patty snack that is now made with three ingredients, and honey replaces sugar

Sam, dairy farms that milk cows artificially makes the udders bleed, crack, get infected. and guess what…. the demand for milk is so high that they milk these poor cows anyway. guess where the blood and pus go?
research it!

The statement that milk is full of pus is so ridiculous, I can hardly believe someone can even think to believe it! Milk is rigorously tested for antibiotic residue and any other problems such as infection and that milk is POURED OUT and the farmer notified immediately so he can correct any problems. Even this happens extremely rarely as cows being treated with antibiotics are tagged so the milker knows to divert her milk from the tank and into a drain! As for teats getting cracked, bleeding, etc. because of machine milking, I can assure you those cows’ teats are probably better cared for and have less cracking than a cow that’s hand milked or even a beef cow that is only sucked by her calf! I have milked cows by hand and struggled to keep their teats healthy and uncracked and I’ve had beef cows with cracked and sore teats that never had anything but their calf’s mouth on them. Enough scaremongering and baseless facts, please!

When they say pus cell what they are referring to is actually a white blood cell. Milk is measured for white blood cells via a test called the Bulk Milk Cell Count (BMCC). Milk is graded according to the level of this test. The higher the number the lower the grading for the milk. To lower the count, farmers will periodically test their cows by taking a sample from each individual cow and having it tested for many things (Volume, Fat % Protein %) and Cell Count. All cows have a cell count, since white blood cells are shed in the milk when they are fighting an infection. Some cows can be as low as the thousands, some into the millions but when all the Individual Cell counts from all the Individual cows go into a Bulk Milk Tank that is where the BMCC comes in. I question the articles claim that 1 Litre of milk had 298 million pus cells. Whilst it is possible Cell Counts are measured in Cells/ Millilitre, if the Cell Count was as high as the article claims the milk would never have been allowed through the plant for processing. By the way, if you think that a hand milked house cow kept in a paddock doesnt have a cell count, you are wrong.

You CANNOT utilize the hormones/steroids from a cow as a human. It simply will not pass through our digestive system into the liver unless methylated.
There is a reason HGH has to be INJECTED.
Milk is also pasteurized. High heat is also HIGHLY detrimental to hormones and steroids.
The sheer dilution of the hormones in a cow thennto a human nullifies the effects of the hormones.
The combination of dilution, heat and digestion make in impossible for a human to benefit from beef hormones.

I agree with all of this although I’m still have not done a complete 180, slowly getting there though. Unfortunately most people have the same thought process that I do which comes from laziness, cost-factors and an overall lack of knowledge on what we’re putting in our bodies. The treatment of the animals we eat as well as the often-times genetically altered fruits and veggies will no doubt have long term effects on us that we may not be fully aware of yet. Don’t knock the writer of this article, she’s simply listing foods we all know are bad for us.

Honestly people, so only thing we can EAT are VEGETABLES. That’s basically what this “writer” is saying. It read like the fifteen mortal sins in the vegan bible. People who have the time to write down lists that tell other people how to live their lives don’t have a life. A lot of people are starving in other countries. Good food is so expensive in some of these countries that most of the items on the list are the only affordable forms of sustenance, except for Salmon. Try going to other places like this. Open your eyes. We’re running out of farm lands that can bare crops due to “progress”. When I last looked at some books from elementary, you need fertile soil to grow vegetables. And a lot of people aren’t exactly enticed to take up farming nor do most of budding young professionals think that agriculture is a good investment. Not as exciting as most button pushing, sitting down all day in an air conditioned office. One of these days some idiot is going to drop a bomb that’ll send us back to the dark ages. Then let’s see if this list becomes applicable to a reality that resembles that world of “The Book of Eli.”

Any male consuming lots of soya products really ought to read about the high content of phytoestrogens that soya products contain and what those do. There are studies it can affect the sexual health of males.

While some of the details of this article may be disputed, the point remains clear that there are many unpleasant (and sometimes dangerous) details about food production that corporations don’t want us to know. There is too much a sense of blind trust and naivety people have toward their food sources. We must educate ourselves and take responsibility for our own health.
And remember: Farmers feed cities!

The fact that cow’s milk is bad for you is nothing new, the only reason you don’t know that is because the billion-dollar milk lobby in Washington (one of the biggest in the world) doesn’t want you to know that and they sure invest in that.

Put cow’s milk in front of a grown cow and see what happens – she won’t drink it. That milk is meant for their babies – and that’s so the baby can achieve very high weight in a very little time.

No other species drink milk from another species, we are the only ones. These days, even veterinarians say we shouldn’t even give cow’s milk to cats – doesn’t that tell you something?

No other species cook their food and use spices either. Really? You are trying to compare what humans and other animals eat? So what if no species like to drink milk. Do other species eat cake? has browns? hotdogs? Stop comparing us to other animals!

Obviously you’ve never actually milked a cow! I guarantee you that cow will drink her own milk if you put it in a pail in front of her! Some will even nurse from other cows after they are grown although this is definitely not something a good herdsman would ever encourage or even keep. As for no other species drinking other species milk, hello – you even mentioned giving milk to cats! Dogs will drink cow or goat milk, too, and I’ve had puppies nurse cats and kittens nurse dogs (more often). Some horses will drink cows milk. And if it was so bad for humans, explain how the human race has lived so long drinking it? Where do you folks get your crazy ideas?